Is a bobcat roaming the woods of Eastham? The answer may involve poop and science.

Within the past couple of weeks, a "person who is believed to be credible in the area of ID-ing mammal scat" came upon unusual animal excrement in the woods near the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham, said Robert Cook, wildlife ecologist at Cape Cod National Seashore.

The scat expert thought the poop might be from a bobcat, an animal that may never have been seen on the peninsula.

According to Cook, the scat was sent to the University of New Hampshire for DNA testing. "They received it (Wednesday)," Cook said. "At this point, we don't know what it is."

Cook said the DNA test results may not be available for several weeks.

Robert Prescott, director of the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, said if a bobcat was now living on Cape Cod, it would "more likely be the first time" the species had appeared here as opposed to re-colonization, or returning to a previously inhabited range.

Prescott suggested that one reason bobcats may have eschewed Cape Cod is because they prefer rocky areas in which to raise their young, a hypothesis that matches material on the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife website: "Bobcats can be classified as common in central and western Massachusetts, present in northeastern Massachusetts, and rare to absent in southeastern Massachusetts. It is thought that one of the limiting factors to bobcat expansion is the absence of suitable rocky ledges that provide cover and den sites in certain areas of the state."

According to published reports, a bobcat was struck and killed by a state police cruiser in Carver in 2008, the first appearance of a bobcat in the southeastern part of the state in recent memory.

According to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, bobcats are the only wild cat found in the state.

They are typically about twice the size of a domestic house cat, may occasionally kill livestock, but are more likely to dine on hares, rabbits, skunks, opossums and mice.